JACOBS’ BALBOA PARK PLAN DEALT ANOTHER BLOW

San Diego 
The slim hope of reviving Irwin Jacobs’ $45 million plan to clear cars and traffic from the center of Balboa Park grew even slimmer Thursday.

San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria, whose district includes the park, said it is “unfortunately apparent” that reconsideration of the plan could take too long for the project to be built in time for the January 2015 start of the centennial celebration of the Panama-California Exposition.

Jacobs, cofounder of Qualcomm, had spent $8 million on a plan to rid the Plaza de Panama of parking spaces and turn it into a pedestrian-only zone as it was for the 1915-16 fair.

Gloria asked City Attorney Jan Goldsmith to see if the ordinance could be amended to permit the project. Goldsmith said in an opinion released Thursday that it could, but only if Jacobs or another sponsor asked the city to do so.

SOHO Executive Director Bruce Coons said his group would challenge any ordinance change and that an April 12 court appearance is set to deal with one of the issues in the original suit. But he said he read in Gloria’s statement that the Jacobs plan is dead.